WellFest 2024: Sound baths, skincare tips and sweaty workouts with famous faces
Presenter, podcaster, DJ and leading fitness guru, Vogue Williams; and fitness and Instagram star Joe Wicks. Picture: Marc O'Sullivan
I am lying on a yoga mat eating an açaí bowl. A man sits cross-legged to my right, leading a sound bath experience. To my left, a woman leads a crowd in a chant of “V for vibe, E for energy” as she teaches them how to twerk. Welcome to WellFest 2024.
The sun is splitting the stones, and my first stop is Leila O’Neill’s Pulse Yoga class. It's a great kick-start to my Saturday, though it did mean I felt the burn a lot earlier than may have been wise. To the uninitiated, a weekend like WellFest is all about pacing yourself.
Next up was the Reformation tent for some Kundalini Yoga and somatic movement, or a lot of downward dogs mixed with jumping around shouting, “We are here!”. If the cracking day didn’t already have you smiling ear-to-ear, this would sort you out.
Eager to let my heart rate come back down, I head over to the WellTalk stage to see Laura Dowling. The pharmacist drew a significant crowd for her talk about vulvas and intimate women’s health — with the help of her sister and fellow pharmacist Rachel, who came with her vulva dress to educate the crowd.
Key takeaways here included the nugget that glycerin, a key ingredient in most mainstream lubricants, can cause postcoital issues for many women, including dryness. The more you know...
A highlight of day one was a cacao ceremony led by Reformation’s Amanda Marren. The natural health industry has been buzzing about this antioxidant-rich so-called ‘superfood’ for years, with many using hot cacao to deepen their spiritual practices. I need not have worried about feeling excluded by the ‘woo woo’ here — this ceremony was about taking a half-hour to slow down and think about what your purpose really is in this crazy world.
My only regret is not popping on my voice recording app to muse on Marren’s words the next time I light my incense sticks.
Having learned nothing from the day before, I start Sunday with Vogue Williams and her personal trainer John Belton for an intense lower-body workout. Williams says she’s “on an ass journey” for the summer... beep beep! That’s an in-joke for the My Therapist Ghosted Me audience, probably 80% of the crowd here.
Carla Roberts took to the main stage with her crew for a high-energy POUND session. Green drumsticks were handed out to a large crowd before the music started to pound. As we moved our sticks to the beat and followed the instructions, the field came alive, looking like a drummer's convention. Electrifying.
Performance psychologist Gerry Hussey drew one of the biggest crowds, who sat silently in the WellMind tent. His insights came in rapid succession. "Life is now," he said. Put your energy and attention into what you love. Change the word but to and."
Before closing, he got the crowd to dance to the 'Birdie Song'. The transformation was immediate — from serious reflection to hearty abandon.
Former winner and founder of the fitness App Bettr, Greg O’Shea left nothing on the platform for his body blast HIIT workout.
"We’re all in this together," he told his class.
True to his word, he gives it socks, going through every well-planned exercise at high intensity.
"Are you going to stick with me?" he shouted, urging the crowd to go for the burn.
At 32 sweaty minutes into the workout, he checked his Garmin and told us we had burned 500 calories before announcing a "bonus round" of squats — there are no half-measures here. He was dripping in sweat by the end — true grit and commitment.
Skin Nerd founder Jennifer Rock was joined by multi-talking pharmacist Laura Dowling at the WellTalk tent.
We heard advice about starting 'low and slow' with retinol and getting the basics right.
But before you fork out for expensive skin care, consider sunscreen.
"Put on SPF every day — winter, summer, autumn," said Dowling. "It's the cheapest form of anti-ageing and the best thing you can do for your skin."
In a session hosted by the affable Human Collective founder Conor Buckley, Rosanna Davison and her dancing partner Stephen Vincent from spoke about all things health and fitness. The former Miss World told the audience she decided to join the hit RTÉ show to find a role other than being a full-time mum to three young children and regain her confidence. While acknowledging she is not naturally well-coordinated, she couldn't say enough about the positive benefits of dancing "emotionally and physically."
Over at the WellTalk stage, career consultant Angela Burke offered advice for those of us struggling with the Sunday or even Saturday scaries. Small tweaks rather than big jumps can make all the difference, she advised, reminding the audience that “sometimes a conversation is all that’s needed."
Boundaries, she said, are one of the critical components of a happy work-life balance.
“We are irreplaceable at work, but we are not irreplaceable in our home lives,” she reminded the crowd. “By saying yes to working through your lunch, by taking that call at 7am — what are you saying no to?”
As the sun disappeared behind the clouds, I grabbed my mat and headed to the WellYoga tent for some Qing gong, followed by a sound bath. Just as Emma West finished setting up her singing bowls, thunder crackled overhead, and the heavens opened.
Inside the tent, we huddled closer before laying out and being guided through a relaxing practice with the sound of rain and chanting from another tent in the distance. By the time West gently guided us back, the rain had eased off, and so had most of the swirling thoughts in my head.
The Sunday scaries weren't so bad this weekend.
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